That may be true for now, but you never know when one on-line posting will bring YOU to their attention.

Chris was just another name in a file until they needed some inside information about his program. It never occurred to him that an intelligence agency would target him for a piece of information, but they did.

Some things to think about.

Chris had no idea that just confirming that the Clariden DSP chip was in use would be enough to hurt or kill. But that one small piece of information was the last piece in the puzzle that the enemy was putting together.

While Chris thought he was careful, it is difficult to know exactly what an adversary is looking for, and if what you have may be of benefit.

2 “I don’t have ANY adversaries!”

Feel like all of this “war” and “terrorist” or “adversary” talk is about someone else?

Take a quick look at some other groups that use these exact same on-line information gathering techniques.

Identity thieves. (Try a Google search on your name.)Pedophiles seeking information to convince your children that they should be trusted

Anyone else who might want a little information about you, even just to know you better than you want them to.

3 “I’m smarter than the enemy!”

It’s a common feeling. People interviewed often say they know they are smarter than “some guy who is now just sitting in a cave hiding from us.”

Chris knew he was smarter than any adversary when he used careful expressions like, “I can’t say how I know.”

Some things to think about.

In addition to small radical groups, our adversaries are some of the largest nations in the world, who are willing to spend BILLIONS of dollars to gain an economic advantage. Information theft is a good investment for them, even if they just trade it for something they want.

Some of the world’s best intelligence agencies are training young people as experts to go and gather information for them. You are up against the experts!

4 “I don’t post on the Internet”

Not posting may help you somewhat, but it is just one example of how you can come to the attention of someone with bad intentions.

Another source is unencrypted email messages which are either misrouted, intercepted, or gathered by adversaries on discarded or poorly protected backup tapes. Stealing backup tapes is a common occurrence.

Some things to think about.

Remember that Chris did not know about all of the information sources that had information about him. He only thought about the sites he dealt with. Most of the others you don’t have control over, but you do have control to encrypt email and post as little “account” information as you can on web sites.

5“What about the Coffee Shop?”

The coffee shop was a reminder that while there are good business reasons to target defense contractors, etc., as customers, those methods are also good ways to gather sensitive information.

Most front businesses will not be called “Terrorist Coffee” so you need to pay attention to the less obvious.

Some things to think about.

Free Internet also provides a way to capture network traffic, including personal email passwords that are often similar to work passwords. Every puzzle piece helps them.

Free Quiet Rooms encourage “sensitive” conversations in rooms that may have listening devices.

By showing a badge, “bad guys” know any time a facility changes its badge, and when new security like “smart chips” are rolled out. If they have infiltrated a facility, they know to update their fake badges by the next day.

Don’t feel hopeless

Increasing your awareness that you really are a potential target, remembering that being “clever” in a conversation or email is very likely to fail, limiting what you can on the Internet, and encrypting all email and drive storage you are able to – Really can make the difference!

« Last Edit: February 23, 2008, 11:56:28 by George Wallace »

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

"A patrol enters a village that has been wiped out save a few women and children, alive in a ditch filled with bodies. There is 30% AIDS in the area. There is blood everywhere, no rubber gloves. Does commander order his troops into the ditch risking AIDS, to help? 23 Commanders from the 26 nations present said they would order their troops to keep marching. Those from Holland, Ghana, and Canada couldn't answer. By the time they turned around their troops were already in the ditch" - Gen.Dallaire

DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

But Sunil Ram, a professor of military history and land warfare at American Military University, questioned the military's warnings about posting information online.

"What we're really talking about is censorship more than anything else," he said on Monday. "This is the military's attempt to control the imagery of what is actually happening on the ground."

This is another reason to be very careful of what you post. There are many "experts" out there who want nothing better than to gather their information from you. This guy apparently knows nothing about Security Concerns and is posing as an expert to pick up tidbits so he can spew them to the media and look good. He should in fact be expousing the same things as the CF and reinforcing their statement, but he is doing quite the opposite. What agenda does he have to call this all folly on the part of the CF?

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

But Sunil Ram, a professor of military history and land warfare at American Military University, questioned the military's warnings about posting information online.

"What we're really talking about is censorship more than anything else," he said on Monday. "This is the military's attempt to control the imagery of what is actually happening on the ground."

There are times when censorship protects, This professor acts like theres a secret that the CF doesn't want you to know. The less information about individual military members there is on the net the safer their families and friends are imho and it sounds like thats more of what the CF is trying to do, not hide it's actions. A few of my buddies cancled their facebook accounts on this recomendation. I've considered dropping mine as well,

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"A patrol enters a village that has been wiped out save a few women and children, alive in a ditch filled with bodies. There is 30% AIDS in the area. There is blood everywhere, no rubber gloves. Does commander order his troops into the ditch risking AIDS, to help? 23 Commanders from the 26 nations present said they would order their troops to keep marching. Those from Holland, Ghana, and Canada couldn't answer. By the time they turned around their troops were already in the ditch" - Gen.Dallaire

If you really want to find out how out to lunch he is, try this little exercise:

Go to Killing with Keyboards and follow the steps as laid out there and see how much you can find on yourself or someone else. It may take some time and imagination, but you will be surprised at what you may find. Of course you will find many people with the same name, but with a little patience, you will be able to sort them out by address, nationality, employment, contacts and friends on Facebook, phone numbers, blog sites, etc.

Give it a try.

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

If you really want to find out how out to lunch he is, try this little exercise:

Go to Killing with Keyboards and follow the steps as laid out there and see how much you can find on yourself or someone else. It may take some time and imagination, but you will be surprised at what you may find. Of course you will find many people with the same name, but with a little patience, you will be able to sort them out by address, nationality, employment, contacts and friends on Facebook, phone numbers, blog sites, etc.

My pension as a former Foreign Minister has me living with a wonderful garden overlooking the ocean. I don't really need the flowers. A good bottle of Scotch may do though.

PS: Thanks Shamrock!

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DISCLAIMER: The opinions and arguments of George Wallace posted on this Site are solely those of George Wallace and not the opinion of Army.ca and are posted for information purposes only. Unless so stated, they are reflective of my opinion -- and my opinion only, a right that I enjoy along with every other Canadian citizen.

as for finding out about myself. Turns out i have stocks in some company (weird), and where/when i graduated from high school. Nothing else.

Don't be too sure of that:

Rank - Private (from profile)Trade - Signals Operator (SIG OP) 00329-01 (former MOC 215) (from profile plus Google search to confirm trade)Signals unit (from avatar)Current location identifiable from IPRussian home town - "my 80K home town in middle of nowhere Russia" (your post)Father's military service - "base where my dad used to work" "2Lt in radio/missile watching place" (your post)Canadian home town Vancouver - "my old high school there was a coop term with either Vancouver police or local RCMP" (your post)Vehicle - 1993 Honda Prelude (your post)

So, I'm looking for a 21 year old signaller driving a Prelude who knows Russian.

And that's from a quick scan of about half your posts here. All someone needs to do to scan all of a member's posts is to stay under the DS radar and be a good little member, posting nothing controversial. We don't even notice the members with clean IPs, nicknames and email addresses that aren't stupid, or that make few or no posts. Anyone who diligently wanted to mine the data here for the type of collection described above would get plenty to work with. We all forget the tidbits we post, and seldom imagine the picture we present of ourselves on line.

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Leadership is the practical application of character. - R.E. Meinertzhagen